Wrap Up

The title of this story includes ‘time bomb’ which may sound startling and is surely not appreciated by vendors, but the term is technically correct. The chip may fail at any time in the future, which is the definition of a ‘time bomb’. It is not just me saying this, this is the sentiment of the end users affected by this issue, as shown by two examples

“Do I sleep comfortable that my network sits on a time bomb ? No. Do I sleep comfortable that my employer's network sits on a time bomb ? No”

“I would like you and other vendors to push Intel to pay to replace affected devices, not just extend the warranty. #TimeBomb”

Intel remained quiet on the issue, placing its partners under confidentalility agreements to not mention their name in exchange for compensation for repairs and bad stock.

Each on their own, affected vendors ranged from Dell,QNAP, Segate/Lacie, Netgear, Netgate, ADI, Cisco, Fortinet and others all issued pretty much carbon copy public statements in early 2017 on the Atom Clock Signal issue, that they would repair users bad hardware as long as it was under warranty or within a several year period.

Some of these manufacturers have already replaced or repaired hardware such as Cisco and Netage. Seagate has done nothing public facing and Dell made promises but kept delaying repairs throughout the entire calendar year of 2017 and at least from what I have personally experienced, I do not know if or when a resolution is coming at least for my affected data-center grade equipment.

Disclosure

Seagate NAS Pro provided for long term review from Seagate Australia

Vendors citied in this article were not appraised of this article before publication.

The writer is a consulting hardware and systems engineer to RackCorp.com. Dell hardware mentioned were purchased under standard business terms without any media discount.